Evangeline

Monument to Acadians exiled from Canada in 1755 (in St. Martinville, Louisiana)

Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is a poem published in 1847 by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Great Upheaval. The work was written in dactylic hexameter reminiscent of Greek and Latin classics, though Longfellow was criticized for the meter. Longfellow got the idea for the poem from his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne and published Evangeline in 1847. It has remained one of his most popular and enduring works.

Overview

Evangeline describes the betrothal of an Acadian girl named Evangeline Bellefontaine to her beloved, Gabriel Lajeunesse, and their separation as the British deport the Acadians from Acadie in the Great Upheaval. The poem then follows Evangeline across the landscapes of America as she spends years in a search for him, at some times being near to Gabriel without realizing he was near. Finally she settles in Philadelphia and, as an old woman, works as a Sister of Mercy among the poor. While tending the dying during an epidemic she finds Gabriel among the sick, and he dies in her arms.

Analysis

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The name Evangeline comes from the Latin word "evangelium" meaning "gospel". The Latin word itself is derived from the Greek words "eu"—"good"—and "angela"—"news".^[1]

Poetic structure

The poem is written in dactylic hexameter, possibly inspired by Greek and Latin classics, including Homer, whose work Longfellow was reading at the time he was writing Evangeline.^[2] He also had recently, in 1841, translated "The Children of the Lord's Supper", a poem by Swedish writer Esaias Tegnér, which also used this meter.^[2] Evangeline is one of the few nineteenth-century compositions in that meter which is still read today.

Some criticized Longfellow's choice of dactylic hexameter, including poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who said the poem would have been better in a prose style similar to Longfellow's Hyperion.^[2] Longfellow was conscious of the potential criticism. When sending a copy of the poem to Bryan Procter, Longfellow wrote: "I hope you will not reject it on account of the metre. In fact, I could not write it as it is in any other; it would have changed its character entirely to have put it into a different measure."^[3] Even Longfellow's wife Fanny defended his choice, writing to a friend: "It enables greater richness of expression than any other, and it is sonorous like the sea which is ever sounding in Evangeline's ear".^[4] As an experiment, Longfellow reassured himself that he was using the best meter by attempting a passage in blank verse.^[2] Even so, while looking over the proofs for a second edition, Longfellow briefly wished he had used a different poetic structure:

It certainly would be a relief to the hexameters to let them stretch their legs a little more at their ease; still for the sake of uniformity I believe they must still sit a while longer with their knees bent under them like travelers in a stage-coach.^[5]

Composition and publication history

Longfellow was introduced to the true story of the Acadians in Nova Scotia by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne and Longfellow had attended Bowdoin College together, though they were not friends at the time.^[6] Years later, in 1837, Hawthorne contacted Longfellow for his opinion on his recently published tales in the North American Review, which Longfellow praised as works of genius; the two became lifelong friends.^[7] Hawthorne was not interested in fictionalizing it so Longfellow turned it into a poem after months of studying the histories of Nova Scotian families.^[8] Longfellow, who had never visited the setting of the true story, relied heavily on Thomas Chandler Haliburton's An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia and other books for further background information.^[9] Evangeline was published in book form on November 1, 1847,^[10] and by 1857 it had sold nearly 36,000 copies.^[11] During this time, Longfellow's literary payment was at its peak; for Evangeline, he received "a net of twenty-five and sixteenths per cent" royalties, believed to be an all-time high for a poet.^[12]

Longfellow said of his poem: "I had the fever a long time burning in my own brain before I let my hero take it. 'Evangeline' is so easy for you to read, because it was so hard for me to write".^[11]

Critical response and impact

Sculptor Philippe Hébert's sculpture of Evangeline at the Grand-Pré National Historic Site in Nova Scotia.

Evangeline became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime and was widely read.^[13] Contemporary reviews were very positive. A reviewer for the Metropolitan said, "No one with any pretensions to poetic feeling can read its delicious portraiture of rustic scenery and of a mode of life long since defunct, without the most intense delight".^[11] Longfellow's friend Charles Sumner said he had met a woman who "has read 'Evangeline' some twenty times and thinks it the most perfect poem in the language".^[11] Other admirers of the poem included King Leopold I of Belgium.^[14] It has been called the first important long poem in American literature.^[13][15]

Though Longfellow had no links to the Acadians or Louisiana, the Cajuns have adopted his story into their culture. In 1934, the first state park in Louisiana was named the Longfellow-Evangeline State Park.^[16] Evangeline has become relatively common among the descendants of the Acadians.

Later works of fiction expanded upon the material of the poem, claiming the "real names" of the characters had been "Emmeline LaBiche" (in Longfellow her full name is Evangeline Bellefontaine) and "Louis Arceneaux" (in the poem, Gabriel Lajeunesse). Among sites that claim a relation to these pseudohistorical figures are a house north of Lafayette, Louisiana, which supposedly belonged to Gabriel, and the grave of Emmeline in the Perpetual Adoration Garden & Historic Cemetery in St. Martin de Tours Church Square, on Main Street, St. Martinville (the site having been determined for its convenience by local boosters about the turn of the 20th century). "Evangeline Oak" trees in St. Martinville also lay claim to marking the original meeting place of Emmeline and Gabriel.^[17] A statue of Emmeline stands nearby — posed for by silent film star Dolores del Río, who starred in the 1929 film Evangeline, and donated to the town by the film's cast and crew.

Another site claiming to have relation to the historical figures that Evangeline was based upon is the Arceneaux House in Hamshire, Texas, which is marked by a Texas Historical Marker. The house was given to Mary Gadrac Arceneaux, great-great-granddaughter of Louis Arceneaux by her husband.^[18]

References to Evangeline in real life

Evangeline is the name of a Parish in Louisiana, a rural community in Prince Edward Island, a residence hall at Louisiana State University, and a small settlement in the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick. It is also often used as a street name in Acadian communities.

The renowned book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe published in 1852 includes a character in the form of a little girl called Eva, short for Evangeline. She is one of the book's characters that does not judge people according to their race. Her symbolic death represents the death of the idea of the unprejudiced human.^{[citation needed]}

The first Canadian film produced in 1913 was Evangeline. L'Évangeline was also an important daily newspaper in New Brunswick from 1949 to 1982.^{[citation needed]} A popular French song titled "Evangeline" written in 1971 by Michel Conte and originally sung by Isabelle Pierre is based on her story. This song, performed by Annie Blanchard, won the 2006 ADISQ award for "Most popular song".^[19] The Evangeline Trail is a historic route in Nova Scotia that traces the Annapolis Valley, ancestral home of the Acadians. Picturesque especially in Summer and Fall, the trail runs from Grand Pré, site of the first expulsions, south to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia near the original French settlement in North America, Port Royal, Nova Scotia. More than a dozen small Acadian villages line the trail. Additionally, there was once a VIA Rail train known as the "Evangeline" that ran from Halifax to Yarmouth, that was cut in 1990. A 1998 musical adaptation of the story was recorded and released on CD, and a 1999 production staged at the Strand Theatre in Shreveport, Louisiana was taped and broadcast by PBS in 2000. The poem was also mentioned in the movie Angel Heart, starring Mickey Rourke and Robert de Niro.

In the 2009 Disney movie The Princess and the Frog, the firefly Ray is in love with the Evening Star he named "Evangeline" and thinks it's another firefly.

Emmylou Harris and The Band's Robbie Robertson wrote the song "Evangeline" with Longfellow's character in mind.

Adaptations

• Evangeline was the first Canadian feature film, produced in 1913 by Canadian Bioscope of Halifax. It was shot in the Annapolis Valley and at Grand Pré.
• In 1919 Raoul Walsh made a film based on the poem for 20th Century Fox. It was suggested by and starred his wife Miriam Cooper. The film was one of the duo's biggest hits but is now lost.
• In 1929 Edwin Carewe made a film version starring Dolores del Rio, shot in Louisiana and accompanied by a theme song written by Al Jolson and Billy Rose.
• Anya Seton's 1975 novel Smouldering Fires explores what she imagines "...might have happened to one anguished Acadian girl who was forcibly torn from her lover on the eve of marriage."

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

• Evangeline at Project Gutenberg
• 1850 edition of Evangeline at Google Book Search
• Longfellow-Evangeline State Park in Louisiana
• Grand-Pré National Historic Site of Canada
• Audio excerpt read by Layne Longfellow; music by Michael Hoppé